Zhao Jianguo's bitter fruit
The sun of Hongqi Commune still shines brightly on the yellow land, but the atmosphere in the commune compound is very different from that of a few years ago.
Zhao Jianguo squatted on the threshold of his courtyard, puffing on his pipe, his brows knitted into a huge knot, and the wrinkles on his face were deep enough to kill a fly. His old Zhongshan suit was washed white, the cuffs frayed, and he had long lost the arrogance he used to have when he slammed the table and glared in the brigade headquarters.
He was dismissed from his post.
About a year after Song Zhiyuan and Lin Xueyin left Hongqi Commune, a transfer order came down from above, saying that he "had simple and crude working methods, was unable to unite comrades, and had serious problems, especially in handling relations with educated youth."
He was immediately removed from his position as team leader and replaced with a younger, more educated one. He was assigned to guard the commune's grain depot, a position so idle it was almost humiliating.
Anyone with a discerning eye knows that the tricks of Song Zhiqing from Beijing are indispensable behind this.
Zhao Jianguo himself knew the situation even better. He recalled the times he had challenged Lin Xueyin, his daughter Zhao Xiaofeng's fanning the flames, and Song Zhiyuan's icy, all-seeing gaze... A chill shot up from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
He regretted it so much! He regretted it so much! If he had known that Song Zhiyuan had such a powerful background, he would have tried to curry favor with him, but he never dared to offend him. It was all his fault for being short-sighted and that careless daughter!
"It's all your fault! You're such a jinx!" Zhao Jianguo grew angrier and angrier. He slammed his pipe to the ground, sending sparks flying. He yelled at Zhao Xiaofeng, who was mending shoe soles in the room, "If you hadn't been goading me into trouble with Lin Xueyin all day, would I have ended up like this?!"
Zhao Xiaofeng paused her needlework and lowered her head even lower. She was much thinner than she had been a few years ago, her face sallow, and she had long lost her former fierce and aggressive spirit. She was wearing a half-new floral blouse, the most common attire for rural women these days.
After her father was dismissed from his post, the family's situation plummeted, and the young men who had previously surrounded her and wanted to get close to her father now stayed away.
Finally, her father asked a distant relative to marry her off to a more remote village in a neighboring county. The man was an honest and ordinary farmer with only a few acres of land at home.
Her husband's family was of average means, her husband was dull, and her mother-in-law was powerful. She was no longer the "captain's daughter" who could walk all over the Red Flag Commune.
Every day, she had to get up before dawn to feed the pigs, cook, work in the fields, and then come back to take care of the whole family. If things didn't go her way, her mother-in-law would start to criticize her. The burden of life and the huge psychological gap had long since smoothed over, smoothing out all her edges and fantasies.
Listening to her father's scolding, Zhao Xiaofeng moved her lips, wanting to refute, but in the end she said nothing. She knew that her father was right.
If she hadn't been jealous of Lin Xueyin, if she hadn't repeatedly gossiped about her in front of her father, perhaps... perhaps everything would have been different. At least, her father wouldn't have lost his job, and she wouldn't have married into such a poor place, living a hard life that she could foresee the end of.
She thought of Lin Xueyin, the fair-skinned, soft-spoken city girl who looked like she could be blown down by a gust of wind.
At first, she looked down on him, thinking he was spoiled, pretentious, and unworthy of Song Zhiyuan. But now? He had returned to Beijing with Song Zhiyuan, and she was said to be living a life of paradise. And she...
Intense remorse and jealousy gnawed at her heart like a poisonous snake, but more than that, it was a kind of numbness after accepting her fate.
"What's the point of saying this now..." Zhao Xiaofeng muttered in a low voice, his voice dry.
"Useless? My whole life is ruined in your hands!" Zhao Jianguo became more and more excited as he spoke, and picked up the broom next to him and wanted to hit him.
Zhao Xiaofeng shrank her neck in fear.
"Enough! What are you arguing about!" Zhao Jianguo's wife rushed out of the kitchen, snatched the broom, and scolded her angrily, "Now you know you're blaming your daughter?
When Xiaofeng said those words, didn't you feel happy listening to them? Isn't it because you yourself look down on that educated young man Lin? When something goes wrong, you just blame it on your daughter! "
Zhao Jianguo was choked by his wife and was speechless. He squatted back in disappointment and relit his pipe. In the smoke, his back looked hunched and desolate.
Silence returned to the yard, leaving only the clucking of chickens and ducks and the work songs coming from afar.
Zhao Xiaofeng continued sewing her shoes, her stitches a bit messy. She looked up at the gray sky outside the courtyard wall, feeling a sense of emptiness in her heart.
Once upon a time, she thought she was the most proud girl in Hongqi Commune and that she could marry a man like Song Zhiyuan.
Now, the dream has come to an end. She is just one of the millions of ordinary rural women who toiled for a meal and a piece of clothing, wasting her youth on family matters and the daily necessities of life.
And Lin Xueyin, the person she once envied and for whom she changed the fate of their entire family, had long since drifted away like the clouds in the sky to a distant place that they could never reach.
When the dust settled, each of their lives, at the crossroads of fate, reached a completely different destination. Some soared to new heights, while others sank deep into the mud, chewing the bitter fruit of their past sowings in day-after-day toil and regret.
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